Thursday’s with Darrell

We live in a rural area and several of our neighbors let their dogs roam free. I have a 100 lb Great Pyrenees mix and we walk with a loose leash UNTIL another dog gets in her face. I understand the problem dog is just protecting ‘his’ territory, which unfortunately includes the street where we walk. Is it possible to train my dog to ignore these aggressive encounters? And if so, how?

Great question, I feel like many can relate. Generally speaking, it would be better to prepare in advance, before or at the time you see the other dog. You can change directions, then redirect the dogs attention to yourself. At this point you have to be more valuable than whatever the distraction is, or as my mentor, the late Lee Mannix used to say, “you’ve got to be funner than dirt.” Be creative, use your dogs favorite toy, treat’s, etc.(you should have these available without the dogs knowledge) and continue that until the distraction is gone. If you get desperate, you should toss your treats away from your dog, towards the other dog causing a distraction for him and a safe out for you.

If you would like to discuss this in more depth and feel this is more dynamic than I have described, feel free to make arrangements for a private evaluation with me. In this we can walk the street together and discuss more options to address situations such as these.